My Friend, Child, Savior
by peppaminty
Summary: Kirara and Miroku both die in battle, and Sango is left with a deep depression and a baby to deliver. The child turns out to be more her anchor to life than anything else, her savior... Inu x San, character death, lots of ANGST. Not for the faint hearted.
1. Chapter 1

**-A/N- WELL, THIS ONE CAME ABOUT COZ I REALLY WANTED TO WRITE SOMETHING INVOLVING OUR VERY FAVORITE NEKOMATA. I AM STILL WORKING HARD ON MY OTHER STORIES, BUT IF YOU GUYS REVIEWED JUST A LITTLE MORE, I COULD GET THE CHAPPIES IN FASTER! SO... REVIEW!! 'K, MOVING ON...**

**-DISCLAIMER- (SIGH...) NO OWNIN HERE...**

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Sango, being already over a month pregnant, was unable to dodge the strike the vicious oni was throwing her, and braced herself for the pain. She didn't feel anything, and when she heard a hiss and a snarl, her eyes snapped open. Kirara had placed herself in front of her master, protecting her from harm. Sango quickly fled the site and motioned the nekomata to follow, but it was too late. The oni gave one last swipe to Kirara's head before shattering under the taijiya's boomerang. Sango and everyone else, Kagome, Shippo, Miroku, and Inuyasha ran over to the injured feline, and Sango pressed her snout to her heart, but Kirara gave one last hazy, glazed stare, took a last shuddering breath, and closed her large red eyes for good. Sango sobbed over her corpse, refusing to let go, even when both Miroku and Inuyasha tried to pull her away together. A burial was held that very hour, but when Sango tried to say something over her faithful cat's grave, she only spit out salty tears, and ran to sit alone by the river. After the burial had been completed and Miroku had said a prayer over the grave, Kagome prepared dinner, but instead of staying inside to eat, she carried a bowl of soup out to her friend. She watched as Sango slowly took the bowl, as a few tears slid into the spoon. She heard a choked sob.

"She... She would always sit with me here. Kirara would, I mean."

She turned to face the younger girl, and Kagome saw, through the window of her eyes, just how broken her soul really was.

_ _

She felt fat, ugly, slow. Kagome was no help, with her nose always stuck in a book from her time on childbirth. Sango watched her turn green looking at the pictures and wondered just how bad it could be. Miroku wasn't much consolation, either. He fed her empty compliments that she knew he didn't mean, because he was never with her and looked happily at her belly, but disdainfully at her. She felt so alone. Before, she didn't have this problem because of Kirara, but now... Occasionally, when they hadn't had another lead on a jewel shard for a while, Inuyasha would come in with Kagome and stare reproachfully at the book that took up so much of her attention. Sometimes he would sneak a glance at her, but would look away when he saw the pain in her eyes.

When she was about 7 1/2 months pregnant, she woke up from a nap with a terrible feeling. She convinced herself it was nothing, and tried to go back to sleep. That morning, 2 village men, who had accompanied Inuyasha and Miroku on a mission to kill a demon, returned home alone. She could hear them talking to Kaede outside.

"I'm so sorry, but the monk was killed by the weasel demons, and Inuyasha stayed behind to carry his body, but he should be arriving soon..."

Sango felt her heart jolt, and she bit her lip to stifle a scream. Suddenly, a sudden pain filtered through her every pore, and she really did scream. Kagome snapped out of the book and watched as Sango's pupils dilated and she screamed with her all. She rushed over, making soothing sounds, book forgotten.

"Sango, honey, I think the baby might be coming."

Her eyes got even wider, if even possible. She shook her head frantically and screwed her eyes shut, trying to block out reality.

"No... NO! It can't be, it still has another 6 weeks to go!"

"Sango, Sango, calm down, it's called premature labor, almost all babies survive it..."

"But what if mine DOESN"T!?"

She was breathing heavily, a cold sweat had broken out all over her body. Kagome wasn't feeling too peachy herself. She ran around the hut frantically, locating items with an urgency that would have frightened anyone.

_ _

Inuyasha had just reached the village, carrying Miroku's lifeless body, when he heard a scream. It made his blood run cold, and he ran as fast as he could with a grown man's corpse in his arms. He laid Miroku down outside Kaede's hut and rushed inside, taking in Sango's panicked form sweating and shaking in fear, and Kagome's also panicked form administering medicinal herbs and trembling with nervousness.

"...should help a little with the pain..." Kagome handed Sango a small cup of tea steeped with an herb meant as a painkiller.

"What? What's happening?" he asked, voice shaky.

"Sango's gone into premature labor. I've just given her some pain medicine. I can't tell what triggered it, though..."

Sango sipped the last of the medicine.

"It was because I heard the villagers outside..." she choked back a sob. "talking about... M-Miroku-u-u..." She was howling profusely at this point, and her face went blank as another contraction hit her.

"What? What's this? What about Miroku?" Kagome looked to Inuyasha for an answer, but he looked away.

"Well, there were a whole of 7 weasel demons, and I couldn't get them all at once... But Miroku...-" something that looked suspiciously like a tear welled up in the corner of his eye and rolled down his cheek, and he swallowed, hard.

Kagome's gaze softened.

"S'ok. You don't have to say any more. Now get, Sango's got a baby to deliver!" She playfully pushed the hanyou out the door and turned back to Sango.

"'K, Sango? I'm gonna have to have you push as hard as you can the next time it hurts."

_ _

Several hours later, as Sango held her newly born child, she marveled at her strange features. For example, both Miroku and she had hair dark in color, but the baby's was the fairest she had ever seen, aside from Inuyasha's, and black at the roots. The skin was as fair as cream, and she had strange black birthmarks both in a diamond on her forehead, and in 2 triangular stripes in her left hip. Her breath caught in her throat as the baby's eyes opened, revealing eyes that were a faded red where they should have been white, with black slanted pupils, just like a cat's

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**-A/N- SO, WHADDYA THINK SO FAR? I'VE ALWAYS WANTED TO DO A STORY OF THIS SORT, BECAUSE I'M SO GOOD AT WRITING DARK AND HEAVY. SORRY IT'S SO DEPRESSING, BUT I HAVE TO GET THAT OUT OF THE WAY, OR IT CAN NEVER BE HAPPY! 'IT'S ALWAYS DARKER BEFORE THE DAWN', RIGHT? ANYWAYS, YOU KNOW THE DRILL, READ & REVIEW!**

**~XIE XIE, JOY**


	2. Chapter 2

-A/N- Hallo! I know I've kept you guys hanging for AGES, but I'm back, and with a fabulous new beta, **Trakrat**, to boot! I hope this chapter is to your liking, it was a bitch to write. Consequentially, I have just finished reading **Tales From the House of the Moon** by **Resmiranda**, and I actually cried while reading it. It is the best story I have ever read, without doubt. I never cry when reading, no matter how sad the story is. NEVER. But this story, it was so... I don't know how to explain it. Charged with emotion...? Anyways, back to my work. Remember, DON'T EAT THE YELLOW SNOW. Thank you.

-REVIEW RESPONSES-

~**sangoscourage** - Yeah, that's what I'm hoping to reveal this chapter. Good guess! ;3

~**.XXX** - Thanks for the advice, I'm only 13, so I'm always trying to improve my writing.

~**beyondbirthday13** - Thanks for the review, Cecilia! XD

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Red eyes surrounded by the biggest, thickest lashes she had ever seen stared up at her, started quivering, and when the baby let out a wail, closed as tears began to form. Sango shushed the infant, cooing and making soothing noises. She held it to her breast and let it feed, but blushed as Inuyasha came into the room after hearing the baby's first cries. Kagome smiled when he averted his eyes and sheepishly handed Sango his haori to cover herself with. Then he sat down slowly next to Kagome, not quite believing that a new life had just been brought into the world in the few short hours he'd been outside.

"So...?" he began dazedly.

"It's a girl," Sango supplied breathlessly. "And, ow..." she winced as the baby bit down on her and she pulled her out from under the haori. "She looks exactly like Kirara."

Inuyasha marveled at the similarities between this new life and the old one that had been left behind.

"Wow..." he breathed. "Today is a day of wonders." Then he remembered the other wonder that had happened the same day and decided to put off reminding the two overjoyed females of the dead monk until later, after the novelty of the child had worn off.

"What are you going to name her?" Kagome piped up.

Sango glanced down at the smiling red eyes before nodding with a certain finality. "Kirara. I'm sure you'll understand why."

The other two smiled, but were knocked out of their temporary happiness by an old voice at the door.

"I never knew so much could happen to ye while I was out." Kaede hobbled in slowly with Shippo gingerly stepping in her wake, and sat down as well, reaching for Kirara. "What have ye named the child?"

Sango relinquished hold on the now burbling baby girl. "Kirara." Kaede slowly looked her over before wrapping her in a small blanket and handing her back with a wrinkled smile. "Aye, a fine name."

"Well, this calls for celebration!" Kagome burst out happily.

"Aye, indeed it does." Kaede agreed with a nod.

"I'm all for that." Inuyasha got to his feet.

Sango just nodded with a happy smile, a single tear of joy rolling down her cheek.

And Shippo just stared at the baby, mouth agape.

--

Later, at the celebration, Sango kept up her happy front as the villagers all congratulated her in turn, but in actuality she wanted to scream and cry, her fiance not there to share the moment with her. Kirara was in a sling on her back, burbling and gurgling as all happy babies should. The taijiya envied the child, unable to be truly sad. She knew the funeral was to be held soon, and decided to try to enjoy herself until then, but found she was rapidly failing at this, everything reminding her of the monk.

Kagome watched Sango smile and accept congratulations as if wound up like a clock, not having a happy expression to her eyes, but a sad one. She knew she was reminded of Miroku, and this saddened her a touch as well. She watched as Inuyasha heaped more food onto his plate, still arguing with Shippo, and this lightened her heart a bit, going to join him. After a few hours, children and older folk started tiring and heading back to their homes, and soon only Sango, Kagome, Inuyasha, Kaede, and Shippo were left. They all walked quietly back to Kaede's hut, entering one by one. Kagome offered another smile and told Sango she was going to go back to her own time overnight, to tell her own mother about the news, and she left. Inuyasha and Shippo went to see her off, arguing all the way. When Kaede and Sango were alone in the hut, she burst into tears, sobbing and mumbling through her tears something about Miroku every now and then. Kaede murmured soothingly to her, calming Kirara who was unsettled because of her mother's outburst and rubbing small circles on Sango's back. When Inuyasha and Shippo returned, she was asleep with Kirara in her arms and tearstreaks across her face.

When morning came, Sango grimaced against the combination of loud wails almost directly in her ears and bright strips of light from the window almost directly in her eyes. Reluctantly, she sat up and fed Kirara, looking around the hut blearily. If Shippo and Kaede had been asleep, they certainly weren't anymore, thanks to the hungry infant she held. Inuyasha must have been outside, either asleep in a tree or just... being outside. It dawned on Sango she didn't really know all that much about her hanyou friend, other than the fact that he was rude and turned into a human on the night of the full moon.

"I'm going to take Kirara for a walk." she told Kaede, who nodded groggily, still in a sleepy stupor.

"I'll come with you!" Shippo volunteered, hopping onto her shoulder.

So they walked out into the fresh morning air, and Kirara gave a very salivated giggle from where she was in the sling. Shippo chattered about this and that, making up for his silence the previous day. Sango listlessly moved along the dusty roads, giving Shippo the occasional reply and forcing a smile onto her face. Then she turned to walk to the well, seeing nothing better to do. When she got there, she found Inuyasha leaned up against the side, looking rather dejected. He looked to be deep in thought, and when he finally noticed the intruders, he stuck his nose up haughtily, trying to appear as though nothing concerned him.

"So, you got lonely without Kagome here?" Sango questioned teasingly. "Or is sitting at the foot of dusty old wells one of your more private past-times?" Inuyasha's scowl deepened, but he said nothing.

Shippo jumped down and started pestering him, and he stood, struck the kitsune, and left.

"Inuyasha's sure not himself today." Sango nominated, and Kirara seconded this with a small gurble.

"Yeah," Shippo agreed, rubbing his sore head. "Usually he would yell at me or something like that, but..." He stood. "...I don't know."

"Well," Sango sighed, "I suppose we should go back for our breakfast." She turned back towards Kaede's and Shippo jumped onto her shoulder, tired of walking. Inuyasha, from high in a tree, stared at the retreating back of the taijiya and her child, unable to sort out his conflicting emotions.

At the moment of Miroku had collided with the weasel demon's claws, the first thing that flashed into his mind was a picture of Sango's beautiful smiling face. He had no idea why this was so, but as soon as the picture appeared, it was flooded over by reason and he finished off the fight, rushing over to check on Miroku. Panic gripped him when he noticed that he couldn't hear his heartbeat, and it's hold grew stronger with each step he took, because as he got closer, he could more easily see the growing pool of blood surrounding the monk's torso. He was soon at his side, and though he noticed he actually could hear his heartbeat, it was faint, which was why he hadn't heard it from so far off. Miroku weakly opened his eyes, slowly focusing them on Inuyasha.

"T-tell..." He stuttered faintly; had Inuyasha not been hanyou he would not have heard him. "Tell Sango... I love her..."

"Miroku!" Inuyasha yelled, "You can't just leave us all like that, hold on!"

But it was in vain, for Miroku's heart had already stopped, and glassy violet eyes looked up at him.

But this did not explain what he kept thinking, over and over and over again. The thought popped into his head repeatedly, always the same one.

_'The competition has been eliminated, the female is available.'_

Inuyasha couldn't explain this, he thought he was all set and ready to go with Kagome. In fact, he had been preparing to propose to her for the longest time, it seemed, though it had only been about a month, possibly two. Then when he was moping over this, Sango herself had come walking by, teasing him about something or other, and a new thought hovered at the base of his mind.

_'The female is available, claim her now!'_

So before he opened his mouth, he simply left, afraid the wrong thing would come out of it and ruin everything.

So, in the early morning sun, he could do nothing but watch as Sango walked away, Kirara laughing while strapped to her back, and Shippo hanging limply over her shoulder, making faces to keep the infant amused.

_'The competition has been eliminated, the female is available.'_

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-A/N- This chappy took awhile to write, even though it was so short, sorry! If I get at least ten reviews, I'll swear a blood oath to write longer chapters, at least 3,000 words each. : ) So, get your asses movin' and WRITE THOSE REVIEWS!!! Come on, you know you want to... And the button is right down there. Just waiting to be clicked. At this very moment. It cries out to yoouuu...

~Xie xie, Joy


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